"King Kong" and other stuff
The usual suspects and I went to a midnight premiere of "King Kong" last night, and we all loved it. It had more comedy to it than I expected, although that aspect gradually diminished as the action and romance built up. Only very minor spoilers are mentioned here; nothing specific that you wouldn't already know if you are familiar with the original movie.
The film is just over three hours long, and I was surprised at how much of that time was spent on Skull Island. I don't think I've ever seen the original film all the way through, although I've definitely seen many segments of it. I'd guess that the first 45 minutes or so were build-up, introducing the characters and motivating them, before they arrive at the island. The second act, where they are actually on the island, was at least an hour and a half long, and the conclusion back in New York at most 45 minutes. I guess I just think of the story as having a lot of New York to it because of the iconic images from the film being mostly from that sequence.
I found the film to be both exciting and touching. I don't know how different the original was, but this film played much like a love story between Anne Darrow and Kong. After he saves her life from attacking dinosaurs, she is nearly as devoted to him as he is to her, and it's not just sympathy for him over his captivity -- she really, genuinely cares about him. It made me sad that, with their size disparity, they couldn't really embrace each other for comfort. Sort of "Edward Scissorhands"-ish.
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Last week I bought a surround sound system. I've kind of wanted one for a while. Earlier this year I bought an old stereo from Sarah which we hooked up to the TV's sound outputs to at least get nice fidelity and stereo, but I wanted to upgrade to a full 5.1 system. A Sony home theater receiver with all the features I want is now under $200, so I picked it up. (It's the HTDDW-670.) Of course, placing the surround speakers was a little awkward with our TV set at 45 degrees to the walls (so you can have a good view of it from either couch), but I did what I could.
Buying the home theater meant I could move the other stereo into my bedroom to replace my old stereo, which I got as a high school graduation gift in 1994, and which has largely stopped working. (And which only had a set of RIAA-preamped phonograph inputs, no regular line inputs, so I couldn't use it with the TV.) Finally, I can play CDs in my bedroom again without using the computer to do it! And, also, since this stereo *has* line inputs, I can feed my computer's sound to it and get much better sound than I do with the desktop speakers for when I'm playing music or videos on it. Nice.
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I may have finished my gift buying... It's so hard for me to pick out gifts for my parents. They basically already have everything they want that I could afford, so I have to come up with stuff that I simply think they'll like. Sometimes I have pretty good ideas, and sometimes I have no ideas. I think I did okay this year. I got all the stuff I need for my friends, except for Graham's, which I am waiting on... *should* be able to pick it up this week. I'll try tomorrow.
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I'm sad that nobody seemed to notice the subject line to my Kit Kat post was an awesome "Hudson Hawk" reference. That movie kicks ass, and you all suck. It is way underrated.
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"Serenity" on DVD in six days!
Also, Ghibli has announced their next feature: "Tales from Earthsea" based on some amalgamation of LeGuin's Earthsea books. It was apparently her idea for them to do the movie, and it's being directed by, oddly, Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro, who nobody has heard of before. The elder Miyazaki does not support this assignment. Details here. The poster is very pretty.
The film is just over three hours long, and I was surprised at how much of that time was spent on Skull Island. I don't think I've ever seen the original film all the way through, although I've definitely seen many segments of it. I'd guess that the first 45 minutes or so were build-up, introducing the characters and motivating them, before they arrive at the island. The second act, where they are actually on the island, was at least an hour and a half long, and the conclusion back in New York at most 45 minutes. I guess I just think of the story as having a lot of New York to it because of the iconic images from the film being mostly from that sequence.
I found the film to be both exciting and touching. I don't know how different the original was, but this film played much like a love story between Anne Darrow and Kong. After he saves her life from attacking dinosaurs, she is nearly as devoted to him as he is to her, and it's not just sympathy for him over his captivity -- she really, genuinely cares about him. It made me sad that, with their size disparity, they couldn't really embrace each other for comfort. Sort of "Edward Scissorhands"-ish.
--
Last week I bought a surround sound system. I've kind of wanted one for a while. Earlier this year I bought an old stereo from Sarah which we hooked up to the TV's sound outputs to at least get nice fidelity and stereo, but I wanted to upgrade to a full 5.1 system. A Sony home theater receiver with all the features I want is now under $200, so I picked it up. (It's the HTDDW-670.) Of course, placing the surround speakers was a little awkward with our TV set at 45 degrees to the walls (so you can have a good view of it from either couch), but I did what I could.
Buying the home theater meant I could move the other stereo into my bedroom to replace my old stereo, which I got as a high school graduation gift in 1994, and which has largely stopped working. (And which only had a set of RIAA-preamped phonograph inputs, no regular line inputs, so I couldn't use it with the TV.) Finally, I can play CDs in my bedroom again without using the computer to do it! And, also, since this stereo *has* line inputs, I can feed my computer's sound to it and get much better sound than I do with the desktop speakers for when I'm playing music or videos on it. Nice.
--
I may have finished my gift buying... It's so hard for me to pick out gifts for my parents. They basically already have everything they want that I could afford, so I have to come up with stuff that I simply think they'll like. Sometimes I have pretty good ideas, and sometimes I have no ideas. I think I did okay this year. I got all the stuff I need for my friends, except for Graham's, which I am waiting on... *should* be able to pick it up this week. I'll try tomorrow.
--
I'm sad that nobody seemed to notice the subject line to my Kit Kat post was an awesome "Hudson Hawk" reference. That movie kicks ass, and you all suck. It is way underrated.
--
"Serenity" on DVD in six days!
Also, Ghibli has announced their next feature: "Tales from Earthsea" based on some amalgamation of LeGuin's Earthsea books. It was apparently her idea for them to do the movie, and it's being directed by, oddly, Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro, who nobody has heard of before. The elder Miyazaki does not support this assignment. Details here. The poster is very pretty.